When This Woman Was Killed In Combat It Exposed How The Government Really Treats Same-Sex Spouses

When the first of October rolled in a couple of weeks ago it
reminded many of us that summer was really over. Forget Labor Day
and the first official day of fall September 21; October is
changing leaves, pumpkins, and Halloween.

Unfortunately that routine awareness was lost to three members of
the North Carolina National Guard who were killed by a suicide
bomber October 1, as they made their way through an open air
market.

The deaths passed largely unnoticed by Americans outside the
military, but what caught global attention is Sgt. Donna R.
Johnson's wife and the fact that the Army refuses to acknowledge
her very much at all.

Gannett-owned
Army Times took the brunt of the protest, but the Times
only followed the
AP's lead, when it mentioned the other two male soldiers
killed were survived by wives, while failing to mention Johnson's
wife Tracy Dice.

Readers who knew Sgt. Johnson expressed their outrage in the
comments section of the Times story and asked why the woman, who
was legally married just like the two men, couldn't have her
surviving spouse mentioned as well.

Those details did little, however, to appease commenters on the
Times original post who shed much light on what's left
in the wake of Don't Ask, Don't Tell's (DADT) repeal.

It turns out that even though a servicemember can legally marry
in a state of their choice and be recognized by law, the service
denies same-sex spouses a long list of lucrative and fundamental
privileges.

The Defense
of Marriage Act enforces discrimination right where
Don't Ask, Don't Tell left off — causing a whole different type
of damage.

What that Defense of Marriage Act also means to Tracy Dice is:

She could never use the commissary to do the grocery shopping
where food is marked just 5 percent above wholesale.

Tracy was never covered under Johnson's Tricare medical
insurance.

She and Sgt. Johnson never received the Basic Allowance for
Housing stipend essential to many male-female couples in securing
housing.

She couldn't go to base-sponsored picnics and events.

She couldn't get any assistance relocating with her wife to a
new duty station, including overseas.

Once at a new base Tracy would not have qualified for
employment or education assistance.

She did not qualify for free legal service.

If she were ever a victim of spousal abuse and the 'survivor'
effects of PTSD, she could not go to family advocacy or spousal
abuse centers.

She will not receive any of Johnson's survivor benefits.

And perhaps most striking of
all is that when the suicide bomber ripped through that Afghan
market October 1 killing her wife, Tracy had to hear about it
second-hand, because the Army refused to acknowledge her as the
Primary Next Of Kin (PNOK). That means grief counseling and all
the honors due a fallen spouse are also being denied to Tracy
Dice.

And finally, when the time
came to identify Johnson's remains the Army would have refused to
allow Tracy to perform that last task as well.

Identifying your dead spouse
killed half-a-world away, in combat, remains a privilege to those
married to members of the opposite sex.

Update: Not the AP, the Army Times, or the Army
are responsible for the discrimination and each simply responded
the best it could to some very unjust legislation, which should
have been struck with the appeal of DADT.